William's First Campout

These pictures are from a while back but I thought it was worth posting.  We went to Deer Run Park which is about 40 minutes south of us and near the Appalachian Trail.  It was a good campsite for a 3 year old.  It had a large grassy field for softball, soccer, running around, etc.  It had a surprisingly clean swimming pool and hot tub, showers and bathrooms, a snack bar, a huge playground, duck/fishing pond, game room, and tattoo parlor (!).  Being pregnant, I was very uncomfortable and didn't sleep well at all but Sean and William had a blast.  Next time, maybe it should be a male bonding experience rather than family time.

Setting up camp

Our huge tent that was just big enough

Sean's scouting skills coming in handy

Roasting hot dogs for dinner

I was not the happiest camper!

William's face painting from the tattoo parlor

Watching the campfire

The huge playground was awesome

Feeding the fish

Cow Appreciation Day!

I know this is very late but Sean has been out of town with the laptop (and my pictures!)  We've been out to visit him so now I can do some updating.

Chick-Fil-A is my all time favorite fast food place.  They are clean and friendly and always have fun promotions.  For Cow Appreciation Day (because they only serve chicken there!), free meals were offered for anyone who dressed up like a cow.  We got all cow-ed up and got us some free chicken sandwich meals.  Yum!

Independence Day (Better Late Than Never!)

We had an awesome 4th of July shin-dig with the Candlands and their friends, and my dad.  We drove out to The Plains, Virginia.  Peter's friend had rented out a VIP spot at the field where the fireworks show was.  We had sandwiches, pizza, popcorn chicken, fruit, spinach dip and lots of sweets for treats.  While we waited, there was a helicopter air show, rocket demos, a small polo match, and a GIANT field sprinkler to run through.  It was good times.  The fireworks were great, even though the music was not in sync.  The only bummer of the night was trying to get out of the maze of thousands of cars waiting to get out of one exit.  It took us over an hour to get out of that parking lot!

After running through the sprinkler

   

       Chillin' out while waiting for the show.

Sean and my dad

Buddies

Sean, William, and Ryan

Postponing Our Independence Day Post

I can't post our awesome 4th of July weekend just yet.  Our lazy laptop (which gets only about 10 minutes battery life!) has pooped out and we had to order a new power cord for it.  It should be here by next week.  Oh, and it pooped just as I finished uploading all of my pictures (200+) and erasing them from my camera so no uploading them to the desktop.  More posts to come like:

Family Camp Out
Independence Day Extravaganza
Dress Like a Cow for Free Chick-Fil--A Food
Sean's Wetting Down ("Wetting Down" is a traditional Navy party you throw when you go up in rank.  He'll be a full Lieutenant)

Grandma Time!

Grandma's Pool

It was unseasonably cool for the middle of June in Yuba City.  It made for fabulous days of sweat-free time outside, but unfortunately my mom's pool was freezing!  We only went in twice and William would shiver and cling to me each time so I gave up.  We went to the new Aquatic Center that had kids water slides and fountains.  I didn't have my camera for the public pool so you'll have to trust me that it was fun.

"Night Before the Wedding" Dinner

This was an informal version of a rehearsal dinner.  Both Marc and Kristen's families were there and we had Hawaiian haystacks, Grandma Barrow's potato salad and delicious pineapple-coconut cake.  As always, when we get together with aunts, uncles, and cousins, funny stories and lots of laughter are to follow.  This night was no exception.

 Marc and Kristen's Wedding

The whole reason for the visit was to attend the temple wedding of my cousin, Marc and his now wife, Kristen.  I was one of the last to get married so I wasn't endowed to go to the temple for most of my family's wedding, including my sister and brother's weddings.  I didn't want to miss out on this opportunity.  The ceremony was beautiful and reminded me of my own sealing.  Sacramento weather was beautiful, the couple was good looking and Kristen's dress was gorgeous.  After the photo session, we headed back to my Aunt Kelly and Uncle Sterling's backyard for the reception.  It was very tasteful and I loved the small jars of homemade strawberry jam as wedding favors.  Towards the end of the evening, William entertained everyone with his interpretive dance moves.  Very funny, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.  That Saturday was a long day, but a lot of fun.

Fairytale Town

A tradition in my family is a visit to Fairytale Town in Sacramento.  My Aunt Kelly used to pack us all in her car and take us there every Christmas Eve day.  As I got older, the park got more and more run down but in recent years they've renovated the park and now it's a pretty decent place to bring kids and relive old childhood memories.  William loved the slides and watering Mr. McGregor's Garden (from A Tale of Peter Rabbit).  Somewhere in my aunt's scrapbooks there are photos of the giant cheese "standing alone" from "The Farmer in the Dell" and all of us cheesing it up on it.  I got my mom and William to peek out of the holes and I even wedged my pregnant self inside for a photo.

Helping Grandma

William loves to be helpful.  He asked if he could help Grandma make a fruit salad and before she could respond, he was already pushing a chair up to the counter to stand on.  He also liked watering the flowers and filling up the fountain with water.  We went to In and Out Burger while out there and he insisted on getting a hat to wear like the workers there.  This is why he's wearing it like a chef's hat while helping Grandma in the kitchen.

Barrow Family Food Fest

It's been said that when the Barrows get together, it's always a food fest.  Yes, yes it is and yes it was!  Everyone brought good food to share and we had barbeque hamburgers and humongous Nathan's hot dogs.  Unfortunately, my mom forgot to take out the Lime Whip Jello Salad (my favorite family recipe!) from the freezer and it was ruined.  Darn!  Then we played my favorite game, Dirty Bingo.  This is when you play regular Bingo and get a wrapped prize with every Bingo you get.  Then when the gifts run out, you start stealing from each other.  When someone gets a blackout (a full Bingo card), only then does everyone get to open their prizes.  I was the game master that night to let my mom have a turn at playing.  I also got to pick out the prizes and that was fun to do.  My mom won the big ticket prize, a bag of chip clips from IKEA.  The rest were from the dollar sections of Michaels and Target.  I especially loved the patriotic hats that Kelly and Jeff won.  It was my cousin, Michael's, 28th birthday so we sang "Happy Birthday" and had mint chip ice cream cake, brownies, and cherry and berry pies.  Christian and Janay had their first baby and got checked out of the hospital that night so they came over for Baby Brynlee's family barbeque debut.

Visiting With my Mom

My mom was working most of the days I was there but we still got in some good "Girly Time."  We went shopping in Roseville, got pedicures, went to Home Town Buffet with Grandma Barrow, and stayed up too late in the night talking.  I also love my mom's back yard.  Sometimes we would just sit outside and watch the birds and eat breakfast or sip cold drinks by the pool.